Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education designing a new elementary gifted model

My principal recently presented me with a challenge, as our county is currently in limbo in regards to our current elementary school gifted model. SHe has asked me to develop an new model to use in our school, and if she and the leadership team like it, I can lead it! This is an incredibly exciting opportunity, but not one that I take lightly. She already wants to utilize one gifted teacher per grade level and have them pull the gifted kids on that grade level each day for approx. 30 minutes to work on critical/logical thinking activities. Her first thought is to continue our pull-out model, but change the curriculum. In the past 20 years it has been enrichment in random subject areas, such as medieval times, space, etc. None of which match the students' curriculum. My initial thought is to develop units based on each grade level's science and social studies standards and take the kids deeper into them. I could pull them one day per week full day, or two days per week half day. I am wide open to any and all suggestions, as I very much want to do the right thing by these kids! Please help!

Are you tied to the pullout model? Do you also do clustering? Hopefully someone will post some studies, I just have time for a quick response here, but cluster programs (where you put the GT kids in the same classroom) with differentiated instruction throughout the day are more beneficial to kids than sprinkling GT kids over several classrooms.

A book that may be relevant is

Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted Learners, 3/E
Joyce VanTassel-Baska, College of William and Mary
Tamra Stambaugh, College of William and Mary
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educ...m-for-Gifted-Learners/9780205388653.page

I would definitely encourage the school to cluster the gifted and highest achieving kids together in one classroom, and then the gifted teacher for that grade level could work with the classroom teacher to differentiate the work.

Ideally there could be crossgrade clustering for the most 'out there' gifted kids.

I'd recommend these books

The Cluster Grouping Handbook: A Schoolwide Model
Book with CD-ROM
$39.99
Susan Winebrenner, M.S., and Dina Brulles, Ph.D.


Teaching Gifted Kids in Today’s Classroom
Book with CD-ROM
$39.99
Susan Winebrenner, M.S., and Dina Brulles, Ph.D.

from FreeSpirit
http://www.freespirit.com/differentiating-instruction/

Good luck!

Grinity

Have you looked into implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) or CAST? They're freely available and accessible to all. Here's a faq page for gifted and talented: (http://www.udlcenter.org/advocacy/faq_guides/gifted_talented). Here's another faq page for CAST: (http://www.cast.org/udl/faq/#q2)

UDL is not simply to help students master a specific body of knowledge or a specific set of skills, but to help them master learning itself. It is based on neuroscience and encompasses many fields and is thoroughly researched. There's information on critical thinking on UDL - including checkpoint 7.1 optimizing individual choice and autonomy! (http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines).

Though UDL and CAST are aimed at those with print disabilities and special needs, UDL can help anyone "who plans lessons/units of study or develops curricula (goals, methods, materials, and assessments) to reduce barriers, as well as optimize levels of challenge and support, to meet the needs of all learners from the start. They can also help educators identify the barriers found in existing curricula."

Here's a link to UDL online modules:
http://udlonline.cast.org/home

Details for instructors (i.e. paradigm shift)
http://udlonline.cast.org/tdetails

And CAST online modules (including designing lessons/units)
http://cast.org/learningtools/index.html

As a parent/LC, my biggest angst for my son is the lack of differentiation in assessments. Our school uses 90%+ mc assessments, probably because they are quick and easy to grade. My son rarely sees anything in black or white. He will look at every answer option and determine how it can be relevant. And in most cases, he can make a valid argument for multiple responses. A truly effective GT program needs to be a 360 view - including curriculum, materials, discussion, assessments, etc.
The assessment side is where we have seen most attempts fail completely.

They say if you want to train a horse, first you have to be smarter than the horse.

I have to say that I agree with others on here about clustering the gifted students and placing them with the teachers who are trained/certified to teach gifted students. Since your principal's thought is to change the curriculum, have you considered accelerating the students through the curriculum? Especially if these students are clustered together, this would provide a unique and challenging experience for them. You could still take them deeper into science and social studies standards, but what if you accelerated them as they were ready in math and reading? There could be a lot of good integration throughout the curriculum.

I agree that enrichment, even if in random subject areas, is still a great opportunity for these students. My gifted students (4th graders) this year have thoroughly enjoyed learning about World War II (through the lens of Japanese Internment and the Holocaust). This started out as read-alouds during reading workshop, but a number of the kids really developed a strong interests and did a lot of independent research themselves. I think it is crucial that we expose these learners to as many as topics as possible so that their passion for learning continues.

Good luck with this! It sounds like an amazing opportunity, but a daunting one too!

Have you considered googling gifted schools and see what they're offering. Great schools. com also shows parents reviews about what they thought of those gifted if you google the name of a gifted school. You'll see that one gifted school has grown up gifted kids only as teachers, they follow the childrens lead. You'll see by the great schools reviews that this works great for some kids, it works horribly for other kids. You'll see that another gifted school has rigorous work taught by knowledgable teachers. You'll see from the reviews that this works great for some kids and horrible for others. By googling gifted schools and looking at their websites you'll see all the options that anybody thinks is great fir gifted kids. Pick and choose what works for your community.


Hey! it's almost this threads one year old Birthday Party !!!

Why can't you take them into higher level math, reading, science or social studies (depending on their skills and interests) instead of "deeper" in a specific topic? These children, if allowed, learn faster than the average children. It seems that these students are being literally held back from advancing in knowledge while teachers discuss broadening the scope or going deeper into the subject at the same grade level.